The current holder of the Miss Israel title explained how “Hamas is ISIS” and Palestine should be freed from the terrorist group.
Noa Cochva, who was Miss Israel as she competed for the Jewish state in the 2021 Miss Universe pageant, was seen wearing an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) uniform in her video posted to Instagram.
At the beginning of her video, Cochva recounted the events of Oct. 7 when Hamas terrorists launched a surprise invasion of Israel, leaving more than 1,400 people dead, including 32 Americans.
Cochva explained how instead of pro-Palestinian supporters chanting “Free Palestine,” they change it to “Free Palestine from Hamas.”
“We’re all aware that Gaza citizens suffer due to the situation,” Cochva said in her video. “The people of Gaza live under an oppressive organization. Do you think that money that you donate helps the citizens in Gaza? Think again.”
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Miss Israel continues to explain how Hamas uses “economic and humanitarian aid for its own personal purposes.”
They build bases in “schools, hospitals, and even kindergartens,” leaving the residents to be used as a “human shield,” Cochva explains.
“With the amount of money flowing into Gaza, they could have been taking care of their own civilians,” Cochva continued. “They could have built functional facilities, secure spaces, a thriving economy, and much more.”
Cochva pointed out how “anyone who claims there is a humanitarian crisis” is correct, “but think about it, who’s to blame that there is no food, no medicine, only rockets?”
“There’s only one to blame, Hamas, not Israel,” Cochva continued. “It’s not free Palestine, it’s free Palestine from Hamas. Hamas is ISIS.”
Hamas has been in control of the Gaza Strip since 2007 after defeating its rival political party, Fatah, in elections in 2006. After Hamas took control, both Israel and Egypt placed a blockade on their borders with the Gaza Strip.
While competing for Miss Universe in 2021, Cochva visited the Yad Vashem, a holocaust remembrance center in Jerusalem with some of her fellow competitors.
Cochva recounted her family history and how her grandmother on her father’s side arrived at Auschwitz, a German Nazi concentration and extermination camp. Her grandmother went there with her two sisters.
At some point during their stay there, Cochva’s grandmother fell ill, and “during the selection, the Nazi’s told her to go to the line of death,” she explained, adding that one of her great-aunts “jumped in front of the Nazis” and saved her grandmother.